Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 838 posts

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#71

Post by yungporko »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #30

People who like WFH will never want to return to the office unless perhaps the office is a 5 minute walk from home (they may be forced to, but they won't want to). For many people the time and cost savings of avoiding a daily commute cannot be offset by a nicer office. Those who are happy to return to the office in general are those who do not like WFH and prefer more contacts and a change of scenery. A nicer office…

yep, i don't care if they give me an entire palace. unless it's attached to my home, i am not going there. if my job requires me to be at the office, i will say "no" and then get another job.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#72

Post by Veliladon »

_fizz_buzz_ wrote: post #27
1970-01-01 wrote: post #3

At home, the benefits are extreme. Full office, private bath, private bed, private kitchen, garaged parking, asset security, and a 30 second commute. The next wave of office workers will want it better than this, or it simply won't work.

I think a lot of people on here have not been through a real recession. Not saying that everybody will go back to working in an office, but thinking one can simply demand anything only works when employment is high. During a recession, it is either social assistance or one takes the job that is available.

There is no excess labor left in the system. We just went through a pandemic where, in the US, 2.4 million people just vanished from the labor force. If there is a recession it'll be a fully employed recession where the fed has to keep rates high because workers are fully employed and driving up wages while capital is crying uncle for lost profits and cheap money again.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#73

Post by mywittyname »

Tao3300 wrote: post #63
SnowProblem wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alternatively come in early or stay late. Joel did get it right. Open spaces are fine for light tasks but a huge drain on deep thinking.

Don't even suggest that. Someone might see this.

Why not both?

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#74

Post by mdorazio »

mandmandam wrote: post #40
_fizz_buzz_ wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of people on here have not been through a real recession. Not saying that everybody will go back to working in an office, but thinking one can simply demand anything only works when employment is high. During a recession, it is either social assistance or one takes the job that is available.

> I think a lot of people on here have not been through a real recession. You can't be serious. > During a recession, it is either social assistance or one takes the job that is available. It's only this way because we allow it to be. Huge productivity gains over the last decades have been captured by the .1%. There's nothing ambiguous or mysterious about it.

> You can't be serious.

I have to agree with the parent post here. What do you think the median age of HN commenters is? I'd say it's probably mid-late 20s, in which case most people graduated after the great recession was largely over and only experienced the COVID blip that wasn't a cyclical recession in the normal sense and mostly helped tech workers instead of harming them.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#75

Post by toddmorey »

Years ago I worked for a company in a huge windowless, wall-less open plan building that was supposed to be fun because they put a slide in it. You had to have headphones on to think.

Looking back it seems so surreal like thinking about when people used to smoke on airplanes. I can’t imagine ever going back to that.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#76

Post by foxyv »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #16
1970-01-01 wrote: post #3

At home, the benefits are extreme. Full office, private bath, private bed, private kitchen, garaged parking, asset security, and a 30 second commute. The next wave of office workers will want it better than this, or it simply won't work.

The idea that employers need to give you everything you want is strange. They give you the least they can possibly get away with. Sure - some small subset of employers competing for the best employees will do this. But the average employer? I'm skeptical.

It baffles me that people think that employees should just put up with whatever horrible environment an employer produces and be grateful for the job. Even after employers have demonstrated time and time again that they have zero interest in the wellness of their employees aside from how it affects health insurance rates.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#77

Post by tehjoker »

SonOfKyuss wrote: post #32
tehjoker wrote: post #2

I would say the most important factor for me would be to implement COVID-19 mitigations, but I also enjoy wfh now.

Corporate America is done with COVID for the most part. I don’t know of any non-medical office still doing any significant COVID mitigations other than possibly retaining enhanced cleaning protocols.

They won't be when the rising disability rates (ONS and FRED data show this) shrink the labor pool.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#78

Post by commonlisp94 »

mandmandam wrote: post #40
_fizz_buzz_ wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of people on here have not been through a real recession. Not saying that everybody will go back to working in an office, but thinking one can simply demand anything only works when employment is high. During a recession, it is either social assistance or one takes the job that is available.

> I think a lot of people on here have not been through a real recession. You can't be serious. > During a recession, it is either social assistance or one takes the job that is available. It's only this way because we allow it to be. Huge productivity gains over the last decades have been captured by the .1%. There's nothing ambiguous or mysterious about it.

> You can't be serious.

Ok, im serious. It's silly to quote someone when you don't have a rebuttal.

2008 was 15 years ago, and didn't hit tech as hard as other industries. The last serious one was early 2000s. A significant number of people "in it for the money" or with non-traditional credentials simply had to leave the field.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#80

Post by lokar »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #30

People who like WFH will never want to return to the office unless perhaps the office is a 5 minute walk from home (they may be forced to, but they won't want to). For many people the time and cost savings of avoiding a daily commute cannot be offset by a nicer office. Those who are happy to return to the office in general are those who do not like WFH and prefer more contacts and a change of scenery. A nicer office…

I had a private office at a large tech firm for many years. It was perfect for me, I would probably go back to the office for that setup. I’ll never go work in an open floor plan.
Post reply on HN